


An Indiana Hyuuga and the Temple of Topiary

by MrCourtesy



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Explicit Language, Gen, Some Romance, but it's not the focus, for kicks and giggles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 08:45:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13143108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrCourtesy/pseuds/MrCourtesy
Summary: From our discussion of Hinata as a character:"I have been informed that she enjoys pressing flowers as her main hobby, so maybe that will be her dynamic plot; an arduous journey for the perfect tulip to place in her collection against impossible odds.I call it Indiana Hyuga and the Temple of Topiary.Her catchphrase will be "umm"."





	1. The Call to Adventure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hanareader](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanareader/gifts).



While Hinata has a lot of patience, the bubblegum snapping, bored looking florist across from her is beginning to get on her last nerve.

 

“You said,” Hinata speaks, very gently and with exceeding care, “that the bouquet would be ready by Monday.”

 

“So what?” The cashier says blandly.

“It’s Friday.”

 

With a bored look reminiscent of an ancient bloodhound, the florist twirls a string of neon blue gum around her manicured finger and eases a pair of hot pink headphones onto her ears, connected to a garishly colored walkman. The tape within screaming some sort of awful sound that seems a mix between bubblegum pop and shrieking.

 

“Look lady,” she drawls, picking up a newspaper she seems to have had stashed behind the counter, leaning back in her chair to put her bare feet up on the counter. Hinata grimaces as her eyes flicker over the headline and overly graphic pictures of chaos, trumped up no doubt to sell more copies.  _ GANG FIGHTING SPREADS FROM CITY, _ it screams, accompanied with another ticker tape byline; _ VIGILANTE REBELS TAKE BACK STREETS _ .

 

The bored tone of the cashier calls her attention back to the moment. “I don’t control the trucks, and it’s not my job to heft your fuckin’ daisies to and fro--”

 

“Tulips.” Hinata murmurs under her breath, but the girl can’t hear her, only pausing to stab her tongue through an obnoxiously big aqua bubble, following it with a disgusting chomp of the sticky mass like a goat chewing its cud.

 

“--I take your money, and put it in the register. That’s all I do.”

 

Balling her fist in righteous anger, Hinata tries to not let her temper get the best of her, stilling her shaking arm with a hand. Reaching into her purse, she pulls out a notepad and pen, scribbling furiously, then rips the note off and holds it up.

 

With a lazy roll of the eyes, the cashier--Tayuya, Hinata reads on her red faded nametag--sighs and puts down her reading, shoving the headphones down onto her neck as she puts her feet back on the ground. Leaning on the counter she looks her customer up and down, and finding her plain appearance (straight dark hair, an old lavender sweater, mom jeans, the most boring white tennis shoes ever created, and a shapeless black purse she got on sale from a thrift store) greatly wanting, sneers. However she seems to find her pathetic enough to have mercy on her, growling audibly before ripping the piece of paper and the pen out of Hinata’s hand.

 

“Who  _ the fuck _ orders flowers from this shitshow of a shop for a  _ goddamn wedding _ ,” she grumbles as she writes, nearly tearing the paper with her distaste, then shoving the paper back into Hinata’s hands before glaring at her.

 

“The only flower shop within three counties that has guaranteed inventory is the Temple of Topiary.” Jabbing a finger at the already weathered paper, she leans in, “They’re the only ones I would ever trust with a wedding, and you should do the same--” her eyes snap down then back up again, “if you ever manage to have one of your own.”

 

Before Hinata can regain her ire, she continues, “The Temple is in South Konoha and it stays open until seven, so you can get your flowers tonight if you leave right now and speed like your life depends on it.”

 

“I--I don’t have a car.” Hinata says.

 

“Tough shit.” Tayuya replies brusquely, and she picks her reading back up again, effectively dismissing her. When Hinata’s shoulders visibly sag, she seems to cave again, closing the pages with a smack.

 

“Look kid, neither do I and my shift doesn’t end for another three hours, or else I’d take you there myself. If you want those flowers, you’re gonna have to figger somethin’ out.”


	2. Shinobi Van Lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where there's a will...

Tangling her fingers around the pay phone’s long and decrepit cable, Hinata waits her father out, his never-ending tirade like white noise in her ear.

 

“--I told you time and time again to make sure that they were on their way and here we are with twenty-four hours until your only sister’s most important day of her life and you have yet again let me down. You know your mother would have been so disappointed to find out what kind of girl you’ve grown up to be--I try to give you any responsibility and you let me down every time--every time! We planned this wedding for three months--three months, Hinata--and you had to mess it all up. I even tried to give you something you were interested in and you still--”

 

Waiting him out has become a pastime of hers by this point, so as she waits for him to decide to listen, she fills out a sudoku to calm her nerves, idly watching the cars go by in the rain. Watching a silver bus with leaves on the side pull into a nearby gas station, she leans her head onto the wall of the phone booth, silently giggling as an ebullient white dog bursts out the doors and prances around a few of the people getting off, splashing in puddles around the pump.

 

“--twenty-three years and you still can’t get it together, I never should have taken the chance with you. You’d think a man could count on his eldest daughter when he needs to but you’re the weakest link in this family, a leech, a drain on the entire family. Why, Hinabi already has her master’s degree and you’re still struggling with your bachelors? This family has a dark enough shadow with your cousin’s behavior. You should be truly ashamed of yourself--”

 

The black text on the side of the van suddenly catches her attention.

 

_ SHINOBI VAN LINES: SERVING ALL OF THE LAND OF FIRE  NORTH TO SOUTH!!! _

 

Eyes opening wide, she stuffs the sudoku back into her purse, nearly leaving the booth until she realizes that she still has the phone tucked under her ear.

“Umm, sorry father I have to go,” she says, all in a rush, not hearing Hiashi’s furious howl as she hangs up on him, sprinting across the street.

 

~*~

 

“So you wanna go to South Konoha?” The bus driver says as she stands by the dog who had been on the bus before, feeding him a bit of jerky from her purse. Tilting his hat up and looking at his watch as his passengers steadily re-board the bus, their arms full of sugar and things that claim to be food, he takes the toothpick from his mouth and studies her for a moment, “I tell ya what, I’m not supposed to let anyone on without a ticket, but we can probably get you one post-hoc if you ask the conductor nicely. Ticket to Konoha from here is 120 ryo, can you squat that?”

That much could buy her food for a week or pay her water bill with change left over. She wishes she had that much money on hand--even if she wasn’t trying to buy a ticket.

 

The sink of her shoulders tells him all he needs to know.

 

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tries to stem off the impending migraine he knows is about to erupt behind his eyes. Exhaling sharply, he waves at her, covering his face with his gloved hand.

  
  


“Just get on the bus.” His voice holds a note of exaggerated agony, but when finally looks up to find her on her knees in the mud, shaking Akamaru’s paw, he cracks a bit of a smile. The two of them look at him with an air of unabashed innocence.

 

“Will the both of ya’s just get on the damn bus!?!”


	3. Ticket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shino makes an introduction

 

Without looking up from the stacks of paper in front of him, the bespectacled teller at the window already knows what she’s about to ask.

 

“No.”

Behind her, the bus driver from the previous gas station steps up, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“C’mon man, you haven’t even heard her out!” He leans on the slim bit of counter next to the barred window, trying to seem more congenial than he actually is.

“I said no, Kiba, and you would do good to do the same. Does she have enough to buy a ticket? No? Then she doesn’t get to go.”

 

Switching tactics, Kiba makes a soft clucking noise, just the once.

 

The ticketing agent stops moving completely, as if frozen in place.

 

Kiba clucks again, following it with another soft, taunting cluck.

 

Clearly irritated, the agent finally looks up.

 

“Kiba, we are adults. You will not sway me with such childish antics."

 

“Bok bok bok.” Kiba replies evenly, no longer looking through the ticket window. Arms crossed in front of him with an expression of complete confidence, he smirks, winking at her slyly.

 

“You are an adolescent, Kiba Inuzuka. if your family did not own this company--”

 

“Buk-cawk!”

 

“I resent the implication that I do not have enough courage to--”

 

Rolling his shoulders and tucking his hands in his armpits, Kiba, with much aplomb, begins to pick at an imaginary spot of feed just in front of the glass.

 

“I AM NOT A CHICKEN!” The agent suddenly shouts, and the whole of the bus terminal turns to look at them as the yell echoes in the open space. Coloring behind his dark glasses and seeming to shrink into his coat, the teller shrinks into his high collar, nearly sinking underneath the desk.

 

“Um…” Hinata interrupts shyly, pushing the driver away from the window, with a shooing motion, “I would be very, very grateful if I could get a ticket to South Konoha. I need to find a way to get flowers for my sister’s wedding tomorrow, and the only place that I know of that will have them is there.”

 

After another moment of silence, the agent groans, lowering his head to the desk.

‘C’mon, Shino, my buddy, my guy, my man--”

“You already used up your free passenger ticket didn’t you?”

“I… may have.” Looking a bit guiltily at the dog that’s been sitting at their feet. It cocks its head at him with an inquisitive whimper.

 

Brushing his hand through a mane of messy black hair, the man behind the counter squints at her.

“So if you were going to get enough flowers for a wedding but don’t have enough for a ticket to South K, then how were you going to pay for the flowers?”

“My father… gave me a check to buy them with.”

“Well, why don’t you just cash the check to yourself and take the money?”

Nodding, Kiba shrugs, “Yeah, he wouldn’t mind if ya took a little of the money for yourself, ri--”

 

“No!” She nearly shouts and both of the men jump, startled. Suddenly embarrassed, she looks down at the ground, shuffling her feet. “He… he doesn’t like me as it is. If I were to... It would be… I just can’t!”

 

For a moment they stand in awkward silence, until with a sudden slide and a decisive thunk, the agent closes his window.

 

Shaking her head and chastising herself for losing control of her feelings, Hinata fights back the swell of upset that wells in her throat. If only she could have checked on the flowers earlier this week, if only she had--

 

From a side door, the agent appears, holding two tickets in his hand as he locks the door to the stall.

 

“It is possible that you are attempting to deceive me, no?” Testing the door handle, he tucks the key into his pocket and turns smartly to them.

“In order to assure that I am not being tricked, then I must accompany you to your destination.”

Standing tall and pushing up his glasses, he adjusts a sharp high-collared jacket then offers her his hand to shake.

“Shino Aburame, at your service, miss.”

Taking his hand, she wipes away the evidence of her assumed defeat before looking up at him, and smiling brightly enough that he pinks a little under the edge of his glasses.

“Hinata Hyuuga, and it’s very nice to meet you!”

 

A low growl pulls both of their attentions to Kiba, who’s shoved his hands in his pockets, gruffly making his way back to the bus as he grumbles a black cloud of insults at his friend.

 

“You just wanna impress her cause’ she’s a pretty girl,” he says to Shino, “you were gonna do it all along, weren’t you? You thunder-stealing ass..”

 


	4. Intervention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata steps in... without really stepping in.

 

Leaning against the cool wall of the bus, Hinata watched the world whiz by through the bus window. She had never been this far from home before: even her university was only a few blocks from where her family lived, and there was little reason to venture further. Having never been anything close to a social butterfly, she had only been able to listen as her classmates and teachers spoke of a world outside of Little Dove. A world of towering buildings, dark alleyways, bright city lights, and man made vistas awaited her, just a few hours away by bus.

 

Little Dove resided at an outskirt of Fire County; the seed of the town lay deep within a blanket of rolling wheat fields and corn far away from any other city, as if to build a cushion between it and the rest of the Land of Fire. East of Konoha proper, it kept the bustling city at a generous arms length, and its inhabitants spurned the occupants of the near major city whenever they happened upon the sleepy town. Shop owners would glare venomously at them as they walked down Little Dove’s lovingly laid cobblestone streets, sneering as the cityfolk sipped their lattes and chatted to the air with hulking black bricks held to their faces. However, Hinata noted with great surprise that she had not seen a single dapper businessmen on the bus.

 

Only a few seats were filled, but none of the occupants held the cosmopolitan air she had expected. Instead the bus chartered a rather homely looking boy who concertedly had not looked out the window since she had arrived, a pregnant woman with a man Hinata assumed to be her husband, a fresh faced farmhand bedecked in all green, and a teal-haired girl in a sweater that swallowed her tiny frame. In the seat next to her, Akamaru (the name of Kiba’s dog, as she had learned from the ticket agent) looked spritely around, bits of drool flecking onto the third occupant in her row: the ticket agent himself, Shino, who grimaced in disgust, trying to hold the dog’s muzzle away from his face.

 

“Must you take your mutt everywhere, Kiba?” Shino groused, pulling a handkerchief from his breast pocket to wipe a smear of drool from his shoulder. Affronted, the bus driver turned in his seat, nearly growling at Shino in defense of his pet.

 

“For the last time,” Kiba said for probably what would not be the last time, “Akamaru is a purebred Samoyed, and he’s a noble hunting dog. Isn’t that right, Akamaru?”

As if understanding his owner, the dog gave a deep grunt of assent, standing just a bit more proudly.

“Besides, if you’re uncomfortable, why don’t you move,” he suggested, nodding towards the empty bench behind their row.

“And let some uncouth element take my place? I think not.” Shino replied smoothly, his note of self satisfaction unhindered by the disbelief in Kiba’s expression.

  
  


Rolling his eyes, the bus driver turned back forward, pulling up to an empty bus stop and opening the door. As they waited for any potential passengers, Hinata fished in her purse, pulling out a weathered tome and parsing through its discolored pages.

 

“ _Surviving With Only Your Bear Hands; a Outdoorsman’s Guide?_ You don’t seem the type to go hunting, Ms. Hyuga.” Shino suddenly says questioningly to her, snapping her out of a quiet reverie. Questioningly, she looks at him, trying to put together whatever step in the conversation that led to him saying that--then her mind clears, and she pinks embarrassedly, closing the book a little to look at it’s cover.

“It’s not-- I’m not--I don’t hunt,” she finally offers in way of explanation, “Sometimes I read it a little, but mostly I just use it to press flowers.”

“Oh?” He intones with an air of curiosity, and she opens the book a bit wider so that he can see the faded pink peony pressed between the pages. The flower is still beautiful, even after being condensed to an easily kept state, and it provides a shock of color in the otherwise dreary afternoon light.

“That is quite beautiful,” Shino remarks, “I have a collection as well.”

“Of flowers?” She asks and he shakes his head, withdrawing from inside his coat a box with a glass front, no bigger than a deck of cards.

Looking down out of the glare, she sees what she at first thinks are small gems, but then she realizes are tiny beetles, each shell catching the light with a pearlescent wink.

“Oh!” Her eyes open wide with a bit of awe, and he swells at her admiration as if she were admiring his appearance instead of that of the insects.

 

With a jolt, his arm suddenly jerks and he scrambles to keep hold of the box as a rather wide man collides with his back on his way hurriedly down the aisle of the bus, but it drops with a clatter to the floor. Her head snapping up in surprise, Hinata’s eyes track the hunted looking man on his way to the back of the cabin, his gaze darting back and forth like a rabbit watching for a snake.

 

Mistaking the reason for her intense study of the man, Shino hums disapprovingly while getting to his knees, filling in the narrow space between the seat and the wall as he searches primly for his box. “People can be so rude, can’t they? He didn’t even say excuse me.”

 

Before Hinata can open her mouth to defend the worried looking fellow, a woman in a pre-century dress brusquely makes her way past, pushing Shino head-first into Akamaru’s generous coat. The sturdy dog bears his weight, giving his face a couple of consoling wet swipes of his tongue that knock his glasses off onto the floor. Dropping to his palms, Shino felt for the delicate lenses with desperate swipes of his hand around the floor of the bus. Hinata noticing his growing peril crouched down as well, for a moment her focus entirely on finding the glasses, but then Kiba rose from his driver’s seat, stomping down the walkway.

 

An argument catches Hinata’s ears--well, more of a one-sided scolding that Hinata is all too familiar with--and makes her attention to her task waver.

 

“I’m sorry, milady,” the man says softly, but it does not appease the angry woman, who works herself into a hysterical state.

 

“When I tell you to go get me a ring I mean sapphire! What idiot would have ever thought to bring me a ruby ring? I hate rubies and you know it! It would ruin my entire outfit! Is that what you’re trying to do? Ruin me? You pitiful little man, I’ll have you know--”

 

Looking up from the floor from underneath the seats she can make out the woman’s shoes standing close to where the plump man had sat, her ridiculously long ash grey hair nearly sweeping the edge of her overly ostentatious dress. Kiba’s brogues stand a little ways away, nearly blocking the view of her Victorian era boots.

 

“Ma'am,” Kiba’s heavy accent hangs even heavier with his ill-hidden anger, “If ya don’t have a ticket, Imma need you to vacate my bus.”

 

Ignoring him, the woman continues her accusing inquisition, her fury building until her feet leave the floor and Hinata hears a scuffle, the sound of resounding slaps echoing through the compartment. Unable to contain herself, Hinata sits up, peeping over the back of her seat like so many of the other passengers who gawk at the spectacle before them; the woman pouncing on top of the man, battering him with open-handed slaps as she piles on yet more verbal abuse, her savage behavior souring the softness of her doll-like appearance.

 

Surging forward, Kiba attempts to lift her off of the man, but as soon as he does she turns her wrath on him, giving him the same treatment and twisting in his arms until Kiba is forced to let her go. Even then she rounds on him, forcing him to retreat backwards towards the front of the bus as he holds his arms up to protect his face. Jumping up onto his hind legs, Akamaru barks angrily, but Kiba waves at him to stay put, not wanting the dog to do the woman serious harm.

 

As they near Hinata’s hands twitch nervously and she looks down at the floor once more, cursing her bad luck. If she were a stronger person, she would give the lady a good telling-off, but even the thought of doing that sends her heart into her throat. If only she had the sternness her sister possessed; unwavering in the face of conflict, sturdy like castle wall under siege.

 

Melancholy wells in her stomach at her inability to help, but then a glimmer catches the light out the corner of her eyes.

 _‘Mr. Aburame’s glasses!’_ Her brain registers, and disregarding the drama towards the back of the bus, she begins to crawl her way out of the row, gingerly scooting past Akamaru and over Shino’s torso as Kiba passes her row, ducking back towards his seat to avoid another blow. Darting out to reach her quarry, she feels a shoe catch her in the gut and she winces, curling up in pain but also throwing off a weight that lands on her back.

 

A clatter of limbs and shoes erupts from near the bus door, and Hinata watches as the harpy topples head over heels down the stairs of the bus, landing in a deep puddle at the edge of the bus stop. Her skirt flies over her head as she falls, exposing a many layered petticoat that flips over her face as she thrashes wildly, blinding her as she rolls in the mud.

 

Thinking quickly, Kiba closes the doors with a vehement crank of the lever and jams his foot on the gas, speeding away and kicking up more mud as he hurries them away from the howling woman. The inertia throws Hinata into one of the legs of the bench and she winces again, yet her arm steadfastly reaches for the pair of glasses as they slide across the floor.

 

For a moment the bus is silent, and as she stands up unsteadily Hinata sees all the patrons on it staring out the window. Every one of them looking towards the woman who still struggles in the muddy rain water, howling her displeasure for them to hear.

 

One by one they start to turn forward again, and she freezes under their combined gaze.

 

Then there’s a clap.

 

The one clap gives birth to a swell of applause, and a couple of soft cheers that ring a little awkwardly--given that there’s only seven other people in the bus besides Kiba, Shino, and herself. Face hot, she sits down in the row opposite her original seat and the driver’s side, waiting for the commendations to die back down.

 

Still scuttling for balance under the chair, Shino knocks his head with an audible thud on the underside of the bus seat, cursing a quiet blue streak. Tapping him lightly on the back, she winces in sympathy as he knocks his head once again in his haste to turn around. Once he manages to sit down again, she presses his spectacles into his palm.

 

“Many thanks Ms. Hyuuga,” he peers through them, pulling out his handkerchief once more to wipe the dirt from the lenses, then his hands, “I hate to sound ungrateful, but have you seen my curio box around?”

 

Just as she’s about to tell him no, the man from before makes his way to them up the rows, holding on against each shudder of the bus. Clenched in his meaty right hand is the dark wooden box, and he proffers it to Hinata as he clings unsteadily to a seat-back.

 

“Would this happen to be yours?”

 

His voice is pleasant and warm like hot chocolate, and Hinata takes a moment to look at him anew--now that he isn’t cowering in fear. Ruddy cheeks mark either side of his easy smile, and really he looked quite dapper in a light scarf and dark red coat, which, now that she had a moment to notice, accentuated his not fat, but really quite sturdy frame.

 

Genially shaking her dark head of hair, she motions to Shino, who gratefully takes his box back amidst a torrent of thanks. Waving off his adulations, the man finally introduces himself.

 

“My name is Choji Akimichi, and I’m glad to make your acquaintance,” he says, waiting for her to finish wiping her hands off on her jeans before taking one of them into a warm shake, “I saw what you did, and I’m very much so in your debt.” Waving from his precarious perch, he catches Kiba’s eye in the reflection of the glass, “I owe a favor to you as well, sir. A thousand thanks for taking on that challenge.”

 

“Eh,” Kiba says without turning around, his face just as nonplussed as his voice, “I didn’t do nothin’.”

“Ah beg to differ,” a little southern drawl curls into Choji’s dissent. He takes a seat facing the driver’s side in one of the front rows as he continues amicably, “If it weren’t for your intervention I mighta had a new hole in my face from that shrew’s claws.”

 

Squinting at him through newly-cleared lenses, Shino’s brow wrinkles in question. “Is it too intrusive to ask why you didn’t defend yourself? You seem like a capable man.”

Hinata shoots him a chiding look, but Choji waves all concern away.

“I swore I’d never raise my hand against a woman, and to wit I never have. She--as my now ex-fiancee--knew my vow, and decided to use it against me. It’s not the first time she’s harassed me in public, but it’ll finally be the last.”

 

Shino nods at this, but something wells up in Hinata’s chest at the statement, and her face contorts at the wrongness.

“But you were going to marry her?” She blurts out, then covers her mouth as if shocked at her own voice.

Rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, his whole demeanor turns sheepish, his already crimson cheeks nearly glowing.

“I’ve always had a weakness for beauty,” he admits, “and food,” he also confesses. “But a man’s got to appreciate a beautiful lady. _Especially_ if said lady would even entertain the thought of marriage to a man like me.”

 

Before Hinata can summon her protest, the bus pulls to a halt at the next station, Kiba having sped away so quickly that they arrived at their next stop with what would normally be time to spare. But when Hinata looks through the windshield she wonders if they arrived just in time.

 


	5. The Bus Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first stop

 

Tires catching flecks of loose gravel and muck, Kiba slams his foot down on the brakes, his eyes wide. Behind him passengers complain and shout in alarm, cursing him for the stop until they manage to look at the road ahead.

 

A couple of meters ahead, the road blocked by flames. The local bus station is engulfed in blaze, vomiting the leftover inferno into the street, and people are fleeing the scene as if being chased. Luggage is thrown askew everywhere, abandoned by terrified owners in their haste to escape. A blazing heap of other charter buses lay in disarray; their hollow carcasses blackened with heat, twisted into a barely recognizable mess.

 

Eyes wide, Kiba’s jaw drops, his hands frozen to the steering wheel. Placing a hand on his shoulder, Shino stands next to him, and few of the other riders rise from their seats, their expressions echoing his horrified awe.

 

“What--”, Hinata starts, unable to even process what was happening before her eyes, her sentence as unfinished as her fragmented thoughts.

 

Suddenly Kiba snatched at the lever, opening the doors to the bus with a slam. Jumping up from his chair, he spirited out the door quicker than Hinata’s eyes could follow.

“Where are you going?” Shino calls after him, leaning out of the doorway as his friend sprints towards the rolling clouds of black smoke, “You idiot, get back here!”

 

“I have to find my sister!” Without losing a single step, Kiba shouts back, his voice then turning to his quarry. “Hana! Hana! Where are you? Hana!”

 

The rushing crowd pours around the bus like a flood, blocking Shino’s exit as he tries to dodge their frantic forms. A few of them even fall into the bus, scrambling to stand on the stairs. One girl stumbles into the bus, thrown by the mob onto her knees, halfway in and halfway out of the bus, her hospital scrubs and pink hair singed by the flame. She yelps with pain as her legs are trampled by the unwary feet of a few terrified bystanders.

 

Hooking his arms underneath hers, Shino hefts her fully onto the bus, and she clings to him for dear life, tears forming at the corners of her green eyes. Taking her by the shoulders, he lifts her back so he can look her in the eyes.

 

“What. Happened.” He says so sternly that it’s no longer a question, a new intensity burning in his eyes. After a few hiccuping breaths, she manages to stammer out an answer.

 

“There were these men--they--they hijacked our bus and crashed it into the side of the building. One of them had a bomb strapped to his chest--”

“A bomb!” Choji says, shock evident on his face. Nodding, she soldiers on.

“They were shooting at these two men--they ran into the station so everybody on the bus could escape, but the bomb went off anyway--I think they’re still in there: I still heard firing-- they shot this lady right in front of me!”

 

Out of the corner of Hinata’s eye she can make out a mass of dark figures amidst the chaos, and even over the roar of the dying building she can hear gunshots. Peering more intently through the blinding haze, she spots two shadows stumbling from a collapsed door frame and onto the debris coated asphalt, recognition blooming along with an electric sort of fear that makes her back straighten. There, cowering under a plume of white flame, is Kiba, holding up none other than…

 

“Neji!?!” Hinata squeaks incredulously.  _ How could he be here? And now, of all times! _

 

Just beyond them, one of the building’s steel girders creaks ominously, the weight of it held too tenuously by a series of quickly failing slats. With a gasp, she sees where it will fall when it does, her heart now in her throat, her voice reduced to a piteous whine. Crying out, she tries to get someone’s attention, but with the panic outside the bus and the uproar inside, she can’t seem to make herself heard.

 

_ They’re moving too slow! It’s going to-- I have to do something! _

 

Hemmed in between Choji’s bulk and the wall, she looks around for a means of egress, then with a burst of inspiration shoves open the little window to her right, wriggling her body through, barely conscious of the purse dangling from around her neck until it impedes her progress. With a huff of frustration, she casts it off, shoving herself the rest of the way through with too much force and falling to the cement below with a grunt, only to be battered by the remaining dregs of the throng.

 

A man careens into her at full speed, not even aware of her as he finds his footing again, dropping a set of camping gear as he flees in a clatter of pots and tin. Her sharp eyes spot an opportunity, and she hefts the bulky pack like a shield, using it to push panicked people out of the way. Reaching the fringes of the mob, she throws it down, running as fast as she can towards her cousin and friend. Pushing every last reserve of power she has into her legs, her tennis shoes pound the concrete, sometimes slipping from underneath her as she hastens her stride.

 

The horrible cry of failing metal nearly deafens her even as the sound of her own heartbeat rings through her head, and the collapsing steel beam falls into a catch of electrical wires that snap one by one with sprays of sparks, like split veins spurting blood. With burning lungs and screaming muscles, she pushes herself that much more, unable to even think of failing right now. Her every faculty is pointed towards a singular purpose, and as she nears the limping duo she wrings a final surge of energy from her protesting legs, hurtling towards them with her arms outstretched. Violent crackling fills her ears, marking the failure of the final powerline, and the  ominous silhouette of the girder darkens them in her view even as she hangs in the air. Hinata closes her eyes with the thought that she’s too late wresting a sob from the back of her throat.


End file.
